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Read the press release here.

Print Shop Hosts Art Sale to Raise Money for Shared Working Studio

By Serena Solomon | February 20, 2014 9:30am
 The Lower East Side Printshop is holding its annual online sale and exhibition.
The Lower East Side Printshop
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MANHATTAN — Artists who use a creative co-working space in Hell's Kitchen are selling their original pieces to raise money for the studio.

The Lower East Side Printshop — which offers artists 24-hour access to a 6,000-square-foot studio with printing equipment, a dark room and an etching room — is holding a benefit sale online followed by an exhibit that begins on Feb. 27. The money raised will support artist residencies in the space, which opened in 1967 on East Fourth Street and moved to West 37th Street in 2005.

"It's an extraordinary opportunity for collectors to acquire high-quality artworks at reduced prices,” said Dusica Kirjakovic, the Lower East Side Printshop’s executive director, who has been with the organization since 1992.

Prints for sale range from a few hundred dollars to more than $2,500 and most are from artists who have participated in the Lower East Side Printshop's program. The online sale ends this Friday.

Artist Daniel Vasquez, 31, won a yearlong residency at the printshop last October. He was one of 10 winners out of 500 artists who applied.

"You get the critical perspective from other artists for your work [and] it's an incredible networking system here," Vasquez said.

Before he won the residency, Vasquez used his cramped home in Sunset Park as a studio. Now, the Lower East Side Printshop's huge printing equipment to expand his artistic experiments.

"It has definitely given me a lot of space and allowed me to practice in a different dimension," said  Vasquez, who is working on tribal designs in black and white that he creates through block printing.

His residency also came with a $1,000 stipend to help cover the cost of supplies like ink and paper.

Last year's benefit raised $50,000 for the organization to support the artist residencies, according to Kirjakovic.

"We love to see our publications find themselves new homes — it works for us and our artists," she said.

The online presale can be viewed here. The exhibit will be held from Feb. 27 to March 16 at the Lower East Side Printshop’s studio at 306 W. 37th St., sixth floor.